Out Around Rigel

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  Transcriber's notes are indicated in the text by [TN-#].

  _I caught his hand and pulled him to safety._]

  Out Around Rigel

  By Robert H. Wilson

  [Note: An astounding chronicle of two Lunarians' conquest of time andinterstellar space.]

  The sun had dropped behind the Grimaldi plateau, although for a daytwilight would linger over the Oceanus Procellarum. The sky was a hazyblue, and out over the deeper tinted waves the full Earth swung. All thelong half-month it had hung there above the horizon, its light dimmed bythe sunshine, growing from a thin crescent to its full disk three timesas broad as that of the sun at setting. Now in the dusk it was a greatsilver lamp hanging over Nardos, the Beautiful, the City Built on theWater. The light glimmered over the tall white towers, over the whiteten-mile-long adamantine bridge running from Nardos to the shore, andlit up the beach where we were standing, with a brightness that seemedalmost that of day.

  "Once more, Garth," I said. "I'll get that trick yet."

  The skin of my bare chest still smarted from the blow of his woodenfencing sword. If it had been the real two-handed Lunarian duelingsword, with its terrible mass behind a curved razor edge, the blow wouldhave produced a cut deep into the bone. It was always the same, eversince Garth and I had fenced as boys with crooked laths. Back to back,we could beat the whole school, but I never had a chance against him.Perhaps one time in ten--

  "On guard!"

  The silvered swords whirled in the Earth-light. I nicked him on onewrist, and had to duck to escape his wild swing at my head. The woodenblades were now locked by the hilts above our heads. When he steppedback to get free, I lunged and twisted his weapon. In a beautifulparabola, Garth's sword sailed out into the water, and he dropped to thesand to nurse his right wrist.

  "Confound your wrestling, Dunal. If you've broken my arm on the eve ofmy flight--"

  "It's not even a sprain. Your wrists are weak. And I supposed you'vealways been considerate of me? Three broken ribs!"

  "For half a cent--"

  * * * * *

  He was on his feet, and then Kelvar came up and laid her hand on hisshoulder. Until a few minutes before she had been swimming in the surf,watching us. The Earth-light shimmered over her white skin, stillfaintly moist, and blazed out in blue sparkles from the jewels of thebreastplates and trunks she had put on.

  When she touched Garth, and he smiled, I wanted to smash in his darkface and then take the beating I would deserve. Yet, if she preferredhim-- [TN-1]And the two of us had been friends before she was born. Iput out my hand.

  "Whatever happens, Garth, we'll still be friends?"

  "Whatever happens."

  We clasped hands.

  "Garth," Kelvar said, "it's getting dark. Show us your ship before yougo."

  "All right." He had always been like that--one minute in a black rage,the next perfectly agreeable. He now led the way up to a cliff hangingover the sea.

  "There," said Garth, "is the _Comet_. Our greatest step in conqueringdistance. After I've tried it out, we can go in a year to the end of theuniverse. But, for a starter, how about a thousand light-years aroundRigel in six months?" His eyes were afire. Then he calmed down."Anything I can show you?"

  [Note: Editor's Note: The manuscript, of which a translation is herepresented, was discovered by the rocket-ship expedition to the moonthree years ago. It was found in its box by the last crumbling ruins ofthe great bridge mentioned in the narrative. Its final translation is atribute at once to the philological skill of the Earth and to themarvelous dictionary provided by Dunal, the Lunarian. Stars and lunarlocalities will be given their traditional Earth names; and measures oftime, weight, and distance have been reduced, in round numbers, toterrestrial equivalents. Of the space ship described, the _Comet_, notrace has been found. It must be buried under the rim of one of thehundreds of nearby Lunar craters--the result, as some astronomers havelong suspected and as Dunal's story verifies, of a great swarm ofmeteors striking the unprotected, airless moon.]

  * * * * *

  I had seen the _Comet_ before, but never so close. With a hull ofshining helio-beryllium--the new light, inactive alloy of a metal and agas--the ship was a cylinder about twenty feet long, by fifteen indiameter, while a pointed nose stretched five feet farther at each end.Fixed in each point was a telescopic lens, while there were windowsalong the sides and at the top--all made, Garth informed us, of anotherform of the alloy almost as strong as the opaque variety. Runninghalf-way out each end were four "fins" which served to apply the powerdriving the craft. A light inside showed the interior to be a singleroom, ten feet high at the center of its cylindrical ceiling, with alevel floor.

  "How do you know this will be the bottom?" I asked, giving the vessel ashove to roll it over. But it would not budge. Garth laughed.

  "Five hundred pounds of mercury and the disintegrators are under thatfloor, while out in space I have an auxiliary gravity engine to keep myfeet there."

  "You see, since your mathematical friends derived their identicalformulas for gravity and electromagnetism, my job was pretty easy. Asyou know, a falling body follows the line of least resistance in a fieldof distortion of space caused by mass. I bend space into another suchfield by electromagnetic means, and the _Comet_ flies down the track.Working the mercury disintegrators at full power, I can get anacceleration of two hundred miles per second, which will build up thespeed at the midpoint of my trip to almost four thousand times that oflight. Then I'll have to start slowing down, but at the average speedthe journey will take only six months or so."

  * * * * *

  "But can anyone stand that acceleration?" Kelvar asked.

  "I've had it on and felt nothing. With a rocket exhaust shoving theship, it couldn't be done, but my gravitational field attracts theoccupant of the _Comet_ just as much as the vessel itself."

  "You're sure," I interrupted, "that you have enough power to keep up theacceleration?"

  "Easily. There's a two-thirds margin of safety."

  "And you haven't considered that it may get harder to push? You know theincrease of mass with velocity. You can't take one-half of therelativity theory without the other. And they've actually measured theincrease of weight in an electron."

  "The electron never knew it; it's all a matter of reference points. Ican't follow the math, but I know that from the electron's standards itstayed exactly the same weight. Anything else is nonsense."

  "Well, there may be a flaw in the reasoning, but as they've worked itout, nothing can go faster than light. As you approach that velocity,the mass keeps increasing, and with it the amount of energy required fora new increase in speed. At the speed of light, the mass would beinfinite, and hence no finite energy could get you any further."

  "Maybe so. It won't take long to find out."

  A few of the brightest stars had begun to appear. We could just see theparallelogram of Orion, with red Betelguese at one corner, and acrossfrom it Rigel, scintillant like a blue diamond.

  "See," Garth said, pointing at it. "Three months from now, that's whereI'll be. The first man who dared to sail among the stars."

  "Only because you don't let anyone else share the glory and the danger."

  "Why should I? But you wouldn't go, anyway."

  "Will you let me?"

  I had him there.

  "On your head be it. The _Comet_ could hold three or four in a pinch,and I have plenty of provisions. If you really want to take thechance--"

  "It won't be the first we've taken together."

  "All right. We'll start in ten
minutes." He went inside the ship.

  * * * * *

  "Don't go," Kelvar whispered, coming into the _Comet's_ shadow. "Tellhim anything, but don't go."

  "I've got to. I can't go back on my word. He'd think I was afraid."

  "Haven't you a right to be?"

  "Garth is my friend and I'm going with him."

  "All right. But I wish you wouldn't."

  From inside came the throb of engines.

  "Kelvar," I said, "you didn't worry when only Garth was going."

  "No."

  "And there's less danger with two to keep watch."

  "I know, but still...."

  "You are afraid for _me_?"

  "I am afraid for you."

  My arm slipped around her, there in the shadow.

  "And when I come back, Kelvar, we'll be married?"

  In answer, she kissed me. Then Garth was standing in the doorway of the_Comet_.

  "Dunal, where are you?"

  We separated and came out of the shadow. I went up the plank to thedoor, kicking it out behind me. Kelvar waved, and I called something orother to her. Then the door clanged shut. Seated before the controlboard at the front of the room, Garth held the switch for the twoprojectors.

  "Both turned up," he yelled over the roar of the generators. His handsswung over and the noise died down, but nothing else seemed to havehappened. I turned back again to look out the little window fixed in thedoor.

  * * * * *

  Down far below, I could see for a moment the city of Nardos with itsgreat white bridge, and a spot that might be Kelvar. Then there was onlythe ocean, sparkling in the Earth-light, growing smaller, smaller. Andthen we had shot out of the atmosphere into the glare of the sun and athousand stars.

  On and up we went, until the moon was a crescent with stars around it.Then Garth threw the power forward.

  "Might as well turn in," he told me. "There'll be nothing interestinguntil we get out of the solar system and I can put on real speed. I'lltake the first trick."

  "How long watches shall we stand?"

  "Eighteen hours ought to match the way we have been living. If you haveanother preference--"

  "No, that will be all right. And I suppose I might as well get in somesleep now."

  I was not really sleepy, but only dazed a little by the adventure. Ifixed some things on the floor by one of the windows and lay down,switching out the light. Through a top window the sunlight slanted downto fall around Garth, at his instrument board, in a bright glory. Frommy window I could see the Earth and the gleaming stars.

  The Earth was smaller than I had ever seen it before. It seemed to bemoving backward a little[TN-2], and even more, to be changing phase. Iclosed my eyes, and when I opened them again, sleepily, the bright areawas perceptibly smaller. If I could stay awake long enough, there wouldbe only a crescent again. If I could stay awake--But I could not....

  * * * * *

  Only the rattling of dishes as Garth prepared breakfast brought me backto consciousness. I got to my feet sheepishly.

  "How long have I slept?"

  "Twenty hours straight. You looked as if you might have gone on forever.It's the lack of disturbance to indicate time. I got in a little myself,once we were out of the solar system."

  A sandwich in one hand, I wandered over the vessel. It was reassuringlysolid and concrete. And yet there was something lacking.

  "Garth," I asked, "what's become of the sun?"

  "I thought you'd want to know that." He led me to the rear telescope.

  "But I don't see anything."

  "You haven't caught on yet. See that bright yellowish star on the edgeof the constellation Scorpio. That's it."

  Involuntarily, I gasped. "Then--how far away are we?"

  "I put on full acceleration fifteen hours ago, when we passed Neptune,and we have covered thirty billion miles--three hundred times as far asfrom the moon to the sun, but only one half of one per cent of alight-year."

  I was speechless, and Garth led me back to the control board. He pointedout the acceleration control, now turned up to its last notch forward;he also showed me the dials which were used to change our direction.

  "Just keep that star on the cross hairs. It's Pi Orionis, a little outof our course, but a good target since it is only twenty-fivelight-years away. Half the light is deflected on this screen, with adelicate photo-electric cell at its center. The instant the light of thestar slips off it, a relay is started which lights a red lamp here, andin a minute sounds a warning bell. That indicator over there shows ourapproach to any body. It works by the interaction of the object'sgravitational field with that of my projector, and we can spot anythingsizable an hour away. Sure you've got everything?"

  * * * * *

  It all seemed clear. Then I noticed at the top three clock-like dials;one to read days, another to record the speeds of light, and the thirdto mark light-years traveled.

  "These can't really work?" I said. "We have no way to check our speedwith outer space."

  "Not directly. This is geared with clockwork to represent an estimatebased on the acceleration. If your theory is right, then the dials areall wrong."

  "And how long do you expect to go ahead without knowing the truth?"

  "Until we ought to be at Pi Orionis. At two weeks and twenty-fivelight-years by the dials, if we aren't there we'll start back. By yourfiguring, we shouldn't be yet one light-year on the way. Anything more?"

  "No, I think I can manage it."

  "Wake me if anything's wrong. And look out for dark stars." Then he hadleft me there at the controls. In five minutes he was asleep and thewhole ship was in my hands.

  * * * * *

  For hours nothing happened. Without any control of mine, the ship wentstraight ahead. I could get up and walk about, with a weather eye on theboard, and never was there the flash of a danger light. But I was unableto feel confident, and went back to look out through the glass.

  The stars were incredibly bright and clear. Right ahead were Betelgueseand Rigel, and the great nebula of Orion still beyond. There was notwinkling, but each star a bright, steady point of light. And if Garth'sindicators were correct, we were moving toward them at a speed nowseventy-five times that of light itself. If they were correct.... Howcould one know, before the long two weeks were over?

  But before I could begin to think of any plan, my eye was caught by thered lamp flashing on the panel. I pressed the attention button beforethe alarm could ring, then started looking for the body we were indanger of striking. The position indicators pointed straight ahead, butI could see nothing. For ten minutes I peered through the telescope, andstill no sign. The dials put the thing off a degree or so to the rightnow, but that was too close. In five more minutes I would swing straightup and give whatever it was a wide berth.

  I looked out again. In the angle between the cross hairs, wasn't there aslight haze? In a moment it was clear. A comet, apparently, the two ofus racing toward each other. Bigger it grew and bigger, hurtlingforward. Would we hit?

  The dials put it up a little and far off to the right, but it was stillfrightening. The other light had come on, too, and I saw that we hadbeen pulled off our course by the comet's attraction. I threw the noseover, past on the other side for leeway, then straightened up as theside-distance dial gave a big jump away. Though the gaseous globe,tailless of course away from the sun, showed as big as the full Earth,the danger was past.

  * * * * *

  As I watched, the comet vanished from the field of the telescope. Fiveminutes, perhaps, with the red danger light flickering all the time.Then, with a ghastly flare through the right hand windows, it had passedus.

  Garth sat straight up. "What happened?" he yelled.

  "Just a comet. I got by all right."

  He settled back, having been scarcely awake, and I turned to the b
oardagain. The danger light had gone out, but the direction indicator wasburning. The near approach of the comet had thrown us off our course byseveral degrees. I straightened the ship up easily, and had only alittle more difficulty in stopping a rocking motion. Then again theempty hours of watching, gazing into the stars.

  Precisely at the end of eighteen hours, Garth awakened, as if theconsummation of a certain number of internal processes had set off alittle alarm clock in his brain. We were forty-one hours out, with aspeed, according to the indicator, of one hundred and twenty-eight timesthat of light, and a total distance covered of slightly over one quarterof a light-year. A rather small stretch, compared to the 466 light-yearswe had to go. But when I went back for a look out of the rear telescope,the familiar stars seemed to have moved the least bit closer together,and the sun was no brighter than a great number of them.

  I slept like a log, but awakened a little before my trick was due.

  * * * * *

  Exactly on schedule, fourteen days and some hours after we had startedoff, we passed Pi Orionis. For long there had been no doubt in my mindthat, whatever the explanation, our acceleration was holding steady. Inthe last few hours the star swept up to the brilliance of the sun, thenfaded again until it was no brighter than Venus. Venus! Our sun itselfhad been a mere dot in the rear telescope until the change in our coursethrew it out of the field of vision.

  At sixty-five light-years,